Ex-Im Reauthorization, Fuel Fraud Study Near Passage

The U.S. House and Senate are expected to soon begin consideration of a comprehensive highway bill that also would reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank and call on a government watchdog to investigate the diversion of non-commercial aviation jet fuel tax revenues to the Highway Trust Fund. House and Senate lawmakers, which this week reached agreement on the multi-year highway bill, face a December 4 deadline to finish work on it before authorization of the highway programs expires.

Ex-Im reauthorization had been included in earlier Senate and House versions of the bill and remained in the final agreement. The House had also included the directive for the Government Accountability Office study of the so-called fuel fraud law, which requires non-commercial aviation jet fuel to be taxed at the highway rate until approved aviation vendors demonstrate that the fuel was used for aviation purposes. Senate negotiators agreed to keep the measure in the final agreement.

“Fuel revenues paid for by aviators should be reinvested in U.S. aviation, not in highway and transit infrastructure,” said Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), chief sponsor of the fuel fraud measure. “A GAO report will allow us to better understand the scope of this problem.”

NATA president and CEO Tom Hendricks also backed the measure, saying, “NATA has long questioned the need for the 2005 diversion provision and views it as a bureaucratic roadblock draining the Airport and Airway Trust Fund of revenues needed for airport improvements and the deployment of a more modern air traffic control system."